Chill of Battle
by Ione
Summary: Thor: the Dark World AU. The plan to destroy the Aether and Malekith goes wrong, and during the battle Jane sees something about Loki that she was never meant to. ONESHOT


Chill of Battle

A gift fic for sleeplessinasgard

It wasn't until Jane hit the ground hard and felt her shoulder give way with a white-hot wrench of pain that she knew how sideways their plan had gone. Biting her cheek so hard she felt a warm rush of blood ooze between her teeth, she rolled over and crawled—cindered dirt scratching her palms and sliding between her fingers—behind a pitted boulder.

The cover it gave was merely illusory. Mjolnir, swinging wide after smashing in the skull of two dark elves, carved a gouge in the mountainside above her that showered down dirt and sharp rocks. Jane whimpered—too smart to scream but too frightened to stay silent. She was gonna get pulverized, and there was no more Aether to keep her safe.

The two brothers were doing their best, but their plans—imperfect and chancy from the start—had misfired. The Aether was not destroyed in the thunder blast, and Malekith was a far more effective wielder of its power than Jane had ever been. Its reddish-black flame could be seen swirling around Thor and Loki whenever they carved a clear space. The other elves were drawing strength from its presence; fighting hard even after a blow from Thor or a dagger from Loki should have laid them low.

The mountain behind her gave a low groan, and Jane knew that she couldn't stay there any more.

She forced herself upright, knees trembling and weak, stomach fluttering and cold, and braced her wounded arm firmly against her side. There seemed to be a little crevice in the rock about 500 meters to her right. If she could just make it…

Thor threw one of the warriors bodily over his head. The elf—its mask cracked, dark blood rushing from a dozen gashes—skidded to a stop no more than ten feet from her. Jane held her breath.

The white mask lay still. Then, with little, jerking motions, it looked up. Saw her. And started to stand.

Jane ignored pain. She ignored everything but getting away. Her feet scrabbled for purchase in the gritty ground and she shot forward.

She got about fifty feet before a stray magical bolt knocked her off her feet. This time she screamed when her dislocated shoulder jammed into the dirt. After the scream she had no breath left.

"Jane!" Thor cried, but he was pinned by four elves and could not reach her. "Jane!"

She couldn't stand, but she could roll over. The elf she'd fled from was gaining fast, and Thor's cry had done nothing but throw attention on her.

She couldn't move.

But she didn't have to.

A long figure, silhouetted in green smoke, appeared before her. She caught one glimpse of his straight-lined profile as he snarled, "Such a burden you are," before Loki turned to the fight.

The elves moved like smoke, striking quickly and sinuously sliding out of range. Loki—faster than Thor and infinitely more flexible—matched them and surpassed them. Two flashes of his daggers felled one, a flung spell hurled another halfway across the field. But as soon as the remaining elves closed with him, his advantages were gone. Jane pushed herself upright and scooted backwards, away from the twisting mass of bodies that blotted Loki's from view.

A flash of lightning scorched the ground and a blast of thunder deafened her; Thor was free, pushing sizzling corpses away from him as he raced to help his brother.

The elves that surrounded Loki, however, were stopping. Not merely stopping their attack, but _stopping_. Frozen in their tracks. Frozen.

A fractal skin of ice flashed from one elf to the next, as though a liquid nitrogen bomb had detonated in the center of the crowd. Beneath the ice, the elves shuddered, slowed, and stopped. Their bodies steamed in a futile attempt to fight it, but in a few seconds—not even near a minute—they became solid pillars of ice, radiating icy cold in the heavy, sulfuric air.

For a moment they stood there, a frozen, peaceful tableau. Jane felt her fear disappear in fascination. What on Earth was doing this?

Then, with a deep crack like a tree being wrenched from its roots, Loki shot up from the center of the group, shards of frozen flesh raining down on the landscape. Jane saw one figure slide to the ground, nothing but its legs staying upright. Even after seeing more bodies than she'd ever thought to see, Jane still felt her stomach shoot up to her throat. She broke out in a cold sweat.

"Get up Miss Foster,"

The voice was sharp, harsh. Jane wrenched her gaze from the pair of legs that had now slumped to one side and looked at Loki. At first she thought her vision had started to go in the weird atmosphere of Svartalfheim, because the pallor of Loki's skin was gone.

He was blue. Jane blinked, shook her head, and looked again. Nope, still blue. And his eyes…

And because she'd had a bump on the head and adrenaline had wiped her mental filters, she said it. "You're blue."

He bared his teeth—and had his canines always been that sharp?—in a savage grin. Loki's smiles at the best of times weren't comforting, but this one looked like he could put those sharp teeth on her throat and tear it open.

"How astute," he snarled, "Now get _up_."

She tried. She really did. But the Aether's power drain hadn't done her any favors, and she sank to her knees again. Loki scoffed, striding over.

"How ironic that I wish I could help you at this moment," he sighed, "But as I cannot, you must endeavor to be more than useless." He turned his back to her and felled an elf before the thing could draw its weapon.

Jane frowned up at his back. "I'd like to see you handle this," she groaned, forcing her legs to lock underneath her, "Gimmie your hand."

"I cannot," he said, "Or were you not listening?"

"What do you mean you can't?" Jane cradled her shoulder and tried not to faint from the pain. She could feel the bone grinding against the socket.

"If I touched you, you would die." Another elf died, hand clutching at a dagger fine as a stiletto.

"Because you're blue? Is it some kind of ice magic?" Curiosity distracted her from pain.

"Jane!" Thor interrupted whatever answer Loki might have given her, and in an instant he swept her up in his arms. Her dislocated shoulder screamed with agony as it pressed against his breastplate, but Jane bit down on her squeal.

Loki turned to look at them, and Jane noticed the normal tint of his skin returning. A temporary spell then.

"Put her down, you idiot," he growled at Thor, "You'll tear the socket."

Thor shot back, "Did you—"

"No, he's right. My arm's a little sore," Jane agreed quickly, to forestall another fight between the two. "And we need to go. I know what Malekith's planning."

"Yes," Thor agreed, slowly, eyeing Loki up and down as though his brother was a sudden stranger. Loki's skin was almost entirely normal again. Only the strange redness of his eyes remained. "Take us back to Asgard. We will gather our friends for the next battle."

Loki was silent. Then, with two steps he was right in front of Jane, and she had to remind herself not to flinch. She'd touched pale-skinned Loki before…he couldn't hurt her. His hand hovered over the torn sleeve of her dress. The very tips of his slender fingers touched her and with a quick pop and a hot jab of pain, her shoulder was back in place.

Once the urge to scream passed, Jane gasped, "Thank you."

He didn't answer. Merely turned and led the two of them across the barren wasteland and back towards Asgard.


End file.
